korsnes 2016 sustainable energy social sciences

1. NTNU-SJTU
2016 SEniC
Summer School
Marius Korsnes,
Tuesday
19.07.2016
Sustainable Energy in Cities
Example of an interdisciplinary approach

2. 2016SEniCSummerSchool
Achieving sustainability is a complex path.
2016SEniCSummerSchool
What is sustainability?

3. 2016SEniCSummerSchool
Interdisciplinarity = the combination of two or more academic
disciplines into a research project. It is about creating
something new by crossing boundaries, and thinking across
them.
Experts in team = a useful interdisciplinary method that allows
to develop cooperative skills through teamwork.
Sustainability can be achieved by opening up to diversity!...
This means to combine expertise and knowledge of
experts with different technical and non-technical
background in order to solve issues by an holistic
approach.
2016SEniCSummerSchool
Interdisciplinarity addresses complexity

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EiT gives students a skills advantage in the workplace. Many
tasks in industry, management and administration require
broad interdisciplinary competence. There are growing
demands for people from different disciplines to work
together to achieve solutions that society needs. Experience-
based learning is well suited for developing teamwork skills.
This is because the things that you have learnt through your
own experience are easier and faster to transfer to new tasks
and new situations where teamwork is needed.
Are Holen NTNU Professor
dr. med.
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Experts in Team (EiT)

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Some disciplines represented here at the summer school
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Example of an interdisciplinary approach
Social
Sciences
Engineering
Architecture

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How can we successfully integrate these disciplines?
This is not an easy task, but we believe that the Experts in
team framework will help you
Tips to achieve interdisciplinary work:
- Be open to new perspectives although they might sound
strange to you
- There is not only one solution, there are always many
- Collaborate and learn from each other
- Be curious – ask questions
Good luck!
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The challenge

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Interdisciplinary energy research:
why social science?
• Studies humans, and how humans act in groups
• Anthropology, Archaeology, Criminology,
Demography, Economics, Geography (human),
History, International relations, Law, Linguistics,
Pedagogy, Political science, Psychology, Science
education, Sociology
• First message: Nothing happens in isolation from
society

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Society and technology
• Technologies are important part of society
• In fact: the ‘social’ and the ‘technical’ can no
longer be separated from another
– Technologies are embedded in our lives and shape the
way society looks
– Smart phones, internet, computers and so on…
• Think: What is the ‘social’ in the context of this
summer school?
– Chinese society characterised by extremely rapid
growth – what does this mean? How does it impact your
design?
• Cultural traits? Local customs?

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Cultural difference:
Finnish vs. Chinese Sauna

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Cultural difference v.2:
Japanese vs Norwegian culture
Japanese Kotatsu
Activity Norway Japan
Space heating - Area heating
- Lax temperature
setback habits
- Person heating
- Strict temperature
setback habits
Lighting Incandescent in
living areas
Fluorescent in
living areas
Bathing - Either shower or
bath
- No reuse of hot
water
- Usually shower
and bath
- Bath water
sometimes reused
Clothes washing Ample use of hot
water
No hot water used
Dish washing - Hot water use is
usual
- Basin usual
- Hot water use in
winter only
- Basin not used
Wilhite et al. 1996

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Learning from history & tradition
Re-interpretation of traditional Arabic wind tower in Masdar City

12. Research: design
and technology
Building industry
Building process
Policy
Users
Development of
sustainable
buildings
Social sciences can address several aspects of sustainable buildings

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Three things: Demand, design & innovation
• Social sciences have implications to several issues,
I will focus on three:
– Energy demand
• Energy efficient solutions sometimes lead to higher
energy use. Why?
– Design
• Why are products not always working as intended?
– Innovation
• We have technological solutions to many problems, why
are they not implemented?

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Energy demand
• Rebound effect
– Example showed by Salvatore: Energy efficiency has
increased, but amount of households (and sizes)
increase
• Wrong use impacts demand
– Classic example: Thermostat

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Design
• Designs are not neutral – they impact users
• How design influences use through ‘scripts’
– Examples: Speedbump, seatbelts, cups
• Users are not passive receivers of designs – scripts
are negotiated
– Sometimes rejected: Unused park road
• Who is it designed for?
– the ‘resource man’, metabolism woman, ?
• Moral responsibility of the designer?

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Innovation – a solution
• Difference between invention (a good
idea) and innovation (a good idea put to
use)
– Only when your idea is accepted and used
by others it is an innovation
• The creation of ‘new combinations’
– already existing knowledge combined in
new ways
– This speaks for diversity – opening up
• Innovating by using and interacting:
When a technology is used, it becomes
better adapted to peoples’ needs
– Examples: creative commons, crowd
funding, sharing platforms etc.
– Experiments such as Living Labs important

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Methods
• Interviews
• Document studies
• Ethnography
• Participant observation
• Surveys

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To summarise
• How can social and cultural perspectives be
integrated here?
• Think about the area – have you taken into
account local culture and traditions?
• Are there any local historical designs that can be
used?
• Think about: who is the intended user?
– male, female, young, old?
• Has anything similar been done before?
– Are there other people or projects with useful
experience?